Free Comic Book Day was a huge success! If you're one of the nearly four hundred new subscribers to this Newsletter, welcome! Hopefully you will enjoy this clever blend of entertainment, information, and marketing I call "infomarketainment." Yes, clever portmanteaus like that are just one of the things you can expect from this newsletter! Hey, wait, don't unsubscribe yet! There's still more to come--perhaps you might be interested in learning who won our door prizes and the charity raffle? Well, if you are, keep reading! Or, you could just scan down to where the prize stuff is. I'd prefer for you to keep reading, though!
Here's a quick primer of some of the great information you can find in the newsletter. We have comic reviews over in that left-hand column, provided your browser recognizes the code I wrote. We also have a shipping list at the bottom of the left-hand corner detailing all the items shipping this week and next week. This week's releases are guaranteed to arrive unless there is a shipping error. Next week's releases are all tentative, so the books may not be arriving the following week. We also list delays in our schedule schmedule section near the bottom of this right-hand column, except for books that will only be delayed until next week, in which case they should be on the shipping list for next week. Our Fanboy Spotlight highlights some of the more interesting comic and gaming releases of each week, and we also have coupons in the newsletter that you can print out and bring into the store each week.
To those newsletter readers who missed Free Comic Book Day, we have assembled something a virtual re-creation of the event. So don your techno-glasses and interface with the mainframe, as we enter a cyberworld of infinite e-possibilities dot com!
This banner was instrumental in making people aware of Free Comic Book Day! Also, nobody stole our posts during this event, so I would say the banner was an unequivocal success!
Free Comic Book Day was so popular we had people lined up like this outside the door at 10:00 AM!
...ON MARCH 27th!!! Well, not really. I was totally amazed, though.
The event was so popular that Darth Vader and Spider-Man showed up! Also popular with Darth Vader and Spider-Man were appearance fees, it turns out.
We seriously had to pay him like twenty bucks for this picture. What a jerk.
Thanks to the filmmaker's trick of "forced perspective," nobody realizes that Darth Vader is actually just twenty-three inches tall! He also has weird claw hands.
This is where you could get all sorts of great comics! Or you could get the terrible free ones on the table there. Well, they were actually pretty good, but that doesn't really help the joke work.
The Cape Fear Literacy Council was present to reassure people that we were not just going to take their money and spend it all on drugs and skee-ball. They were also warily keeping an eye out for their archnemeses on the sinister Illiteracy Council and their malevolent leader, DYSLEXIOS.
The Bone radio station was on hand to cover the event! I don't know what their coverage was like, because we were listening to a CD of Jackson and me screming obscenities into a microphone as loud as possible for a half hour. Fortunately, this had no effect on the customers inside.
We were also at Mayfaire Cinemas! As were Spider-Man, Venom, Chris Cully, and Robocop (in a festive Spider-Man costume).
Here's friend of the store Jarvis and his Jewish friend (sorry, in-joke) hanging out with a sculpture of the Silver Surfer.
What does Venom's stylish fanny pack contain? My guess: dollar coins and EVIL.
Free Comic Book Day 2007 Door Prize Winners!
Below are the few proud individuals selected from the hundreds that signed up for this newsletter you are currently viewing to win great prizes! There were also some prizes specifically for people who registered at our game demos. All of those winners are announced right here:
-Door Prize Winners-
Jennifer Strickland won the
Alex Ross Spider-Man Head Bust
Shane Ford won the
Marvel Icons Spider-Man Bust
Amy Klingensmith won the
Amazing Spider-Man Pop-Up Book and the Spider-Man Operation Game
Richard Lewis won the
Spider-Man Tattoo From Area 51 and the Ultimate Guide to Spider-Man
Mark Abreu won the
The Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus
-World of Warcraft Starter Winners-
David Englebretson
David Pierce
Warren Smith
-D&D Minis Starter Winners-
Trent Allen
Chase Parker
Dennis Layman
All door prize winners have until Saturday, June 9th to pick up their prizes! We'll probably want to see an ID unless we know you, just to be on the safe side.
We also held a raffle. The winners of these prizes will be contacted in the next few days, but we're also going to announce them here.
Free Comic Book Day 2007 Raffle Winners!
Cory Peterson and
Joshua Cumbee each won a
Best Buy Gift Card!
Cathy Wiggins won a
$100 Gift Certificate to Area 51 Tattoo Parlor!
Justin Best won a
Limited Edition Signed and Remarked Tom Fleming Spider-Man Print!
Scott Ogden won a
One Year Subscription to Ten Comic Titles!
Congratulations to all the people who bought raffle tickets and helped us raise over $500 for the Cape Fear Literacy Council!
Oh, right, we also had a competition between the schools! Which school walked away the victor?
Free Comic Book Day 2007 School Contest Winner
Ashley High School
The Ashley High School Library will soon be receiving this collection of award-winning graphic novels:
Maus
by Art Spiegelman
A Pulitzer-Prize-Winning account of the Holocaust
The Contract With God Trilogy
by Will Eisner
One of the earliest and most influential "Graphic Novels"
Sandman: Dream Country
by Neil Gaiman
Containing the only comic to ever win a World Fantasy Award, "A Midsummer's Night Dream"
Pride of Baghdad
by Brian K. Vaughan
Celebrated comics newcomer Vaughan's unique look at the Iraq War
through the eyes of a pride of lions that escaped from the Baghdad Zoo
Understanding Comics
by Scott McCloud
An evaluation of comics that Will Eisner called, "A landmark
dissection and intellectual consideration of comics as a valid medium."
How To Draw Comics the Marvel Way
by Stan Lee and John Buscema
The ultimate guide on creating comics by one of Marvel's greatest writers and one of their greatest artists
Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi
The critically acclaimed memoir of a girl's childhood in Iran during the Islamic Revolution
All of these graphic novels are also available at Fanboy Comics! Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more! Thanks to everyone who participated in Free Comic Book Day 2007, and congratulations to all of our prize winners!
We also buy things! Here's a rundown of the main stuff:
- Silver Age Superhero Comics - While recent comics are all pretty enjoyable, we really only want the Silver Age Superhero stuff. The Silver Age is generally going to be comics published on or before 1977. It can sometimes be hard to figure out the date a comic was published, so a good rule of thumb is that the cover price should be $0.35 or less. And while we have nothing against comics not about superheroes, the stuff we can sell is Silver Age Superheroes.
- Used Trade Paperbacks - If they're in decent condition, we'll probably pick them up. It's difficult to give any hard and fast guidelines for what we want, because it depends a lot on what we have in stock and what we can order.
- Yu-Gi-Oh and Magic Singles - We only buy rares, and I can give you even fewer guidelines about this. Mac is in charge of all of our singles sales, and he works on Thursday through Monday, so those are really the only days we can buy any cards.
- Used Roleplaying Games - We'll look at pretty much any roleplaying games. We don't usually buy stuff that is currently in print, but if you've got the time to stop by, it's worth a shot. We're always interested in classic Dungeons and Dragons books.
- Used Records - Thomas buys a lot of old jazz and blues records for his personal collection. Records are like CDs, except black and older. Kind of like the blues musicians Thomas likes!
- Vintage Paperbacks and Pulps - I don't know anything about these. We might buy them, though!
Be sure to call before you come by to make sure we're not too busy to look at your stuff! We can also set up an appointment. Just call (910) 452-7828 or email
fanboycomics@bellsouth.net.
Countdown #51
Well, now's your chance to win back the money you lost when you took Week 17 in the "What Week Will 52 Be Delayed" Pool. DC's shown that it can put out a weekly title on time, but that was a weekly written by four superstar writers in an intensely collaborative effort. This time, the biggest name involved is Paul Dini, who--while an excellent writer--hasn't compiled the library of work that Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Greg Rucka, and Geoff Johns each have. He's being supported by the duo of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, up-and-coming writer Adam Beechen, and DC Comics neophyte Shawn McKeever, whose only truly remarkable title to date has been Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. This series isn't 52 II, (would that be 54?) either--it's not in "real time," it takes place concurrently with main DC continuity, and the writers are scripting individual storylines, as opposed to the uniquely collaborative effort that was 52. Will this make it better or worse? Only time can tell, but if they're following 52, they've got to have something up their sleeve.
Marvel Zombies: Dead Days
Don't get me wrong--the Marvel Zombies vs. Army of Darkness series has way exceeded my expectations--it's just that it's good to see the original team back on the book that was probably the surprise hit of last year, with apologies to Mark Millar and Greg Land. Hopefully, this will delve more into (and I can't believe I'm saying this) the rich history of the Marvel Zombieverse with the same dignity and respect the original Marvel Zombies book had. Namely, none.
Amazing Spider-Man #540
"Back in Black" continues with what I can confidently call, thanks to the magic of preview copies, a damn good story of a man on his way to rock bottom. J. Michael Straczynski has always written a great Peter Parker, but I was certainly concerned about his ability to convincingly write an upbeat character sinking to the depths of anger and depression that he's going to reach in this series. I shouldn't have worried, because this issue continues the trend of excellence in all the Spider-books. Except for Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, which is terrible.
It's a new phenomenon sweeping the globe, without borders or boundaries, where nobody is impolite! It's INTERNET, and Fanboy Comics is all about this exciting new technology. Not only do we have our website at www.fanboycomics.biz, but we also have a page on the popular sex offender registry, MySpace! Why, it's right here: at this link. We also use the magic of INTERNET to provide goods and services to other parts of the globe through our Electronic Bay! Truly, INTERNET allows us to indulge our passion in all things Thai.
Let us know what you're looking for! We can special order most items, depending on their availability at our distributor. All that's required on your part is a 50% deposit, and your order will be placed on the next Tuesday and will arrive on either Thursday or Friday of that week, at which point we'll call you. It's a pretty easy system!
If you produce a comic, or have some art you'd like to submit, or have written a review or anything else that you'd like to see in the newsletter, we're totally cool with that! Just email editor@fanboycomics.biz, and we'll put your submission in the newsletter if it's appropriate! Heck, you can even send in plain old comments about the newsletter, the store, or one of our events and we might publish them! We're really accommodating, it would seem.
...Mystery Bags, that is! These hand-crafted packages are created with all the love and care my mother used to pack my lunches with. Fortunately, that's an appropriately vague statement that could be interpreted in any number of ways, depending on exactly how unhealthy my relationship with my mother was! Freudian overtones aside, these Mystery Bags are $5.00 and contain 20 comics! You can barely get TWO comics for five dollars these days, and here we are selling you 20 comics for that amount. That's ridiculous. We also try our hardest to make these bags as all-ages-friendly as possible, so kids can enjoy them too! We've restocked from the Free Comic Book Day blitz on these Mystery Bags, so be sure to get yours soon!
28 Days Later: The Aftermath GN
$17.99
I haven't seen this movie, and I don't even like zombies. You know what that means? That's right, I'm going to copy and paste something! Take it away, faceless corporate marketing drone!
Bridging the gap between the original film and its sequel, 28 Days Later: The Aftermath tells the story of one of the last bands of un-infected humans in London, desperately trying to survive in the midst of the Rage virus. Will their salvation come in the form of a rescue, or an over-zealous American army determined to eliminate anything left alive? Like the breakout Halo graphic novel, this full-length novel is told in four interlocking stories by horror maestro Steve Niles. Each chapter of this tale is illustrated by several of the brightest talents in comics today.
Let's all give a big hand to the faceless corporate marketing drone who wrote that ad copy! Good job!
Y: The Last Man Vol. 9: Motherland
$14.99
This is the one where they finally reveal the cause of the plague that killed all the men. The mystery is revealed and I, for one, can't wait. Sure, it was revealed in the individual issues a few months ago, but who reads those? Nobody I know. I'm pretty sure trade paperback sales for Y: The Last Man outnumber sales of the issues by a long shot. I might be able to verify that information in some way, but why would I really care enough to? Answer me that.
Oh, right. If you've been reading Y: The Last Man, you should get this trade. If you haven't, you should start reading it. I don't know what else I could add, really.
Eternals HC
$29.99
Well, it looks like Neil Gaiman came down from Mount Legitimate Writer to grace us here in Comic Book Land with his presence. And hey, since all the cool kids are doing it, why not take a largely-ignored Jack Kirby creation from back in the day and revamp it? What do you want me to say here? It's a comic book written by Neil Gaiman, with art by John Romita Jr. If you don't understand why that makes this awesome, there's not a whole lot I can do otherwise. I mean, damn, it's Neil Gaiman and John Romita jr. Just read the book, people.
Aliens vs. Predator HorrorClix Sets
Aliens Set - $30.00
Predators Set - $30.00
HorrorClix has finally got the licensing tie-in that it's needed from the beginning: Aliens and Predators! Lovecraft is great and all, but there's really only so much you can do to sculpt unknowable non-euclidian horrors. Painting the Color From Space would probably be a lot more trouble than it's worth, too--and the worst part is, if you do a good job, everyone who sees it will go insane! If the Alien Queen set was any indication, these are going to be some pretty cool minis. So buy now, before they go out of stock!
Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG
$39.99
There are pretty much only two systems I would ever want to use for a swashbuckling roleplaying game: 7th Sea or Savage Worlds. The 7th Sea system was tons of fun, but had some unfortunate flaws, and Savage Worlds would have required too much work on my part. Fortunately, Pinnacle Entertainment Group has brought pirates to the Savage Worlds, and all I had to do was wait! For some reason, they've tied it to the license for the now-largely-defunct Pirates constructible card game, but whatever! I honestly don't care, as long as I get me some adventure on the high seas using what I consider to be one of the best rules-light systems on the market these days. I'm definitely looking forward to this one.
Green Lantern Corps Vol. 1 TP
$12.99
Everybody love Guy Gardner! Unfortunately, they didn't seem to be able to justify having comics devoted to three different heroes with essentially the same powers, so they let the Green Lantern and Ion titles do their own thing, and lumped Guy Gardner into the book about the corps as a whole. As such, you're pretty much treated to half Guy Gardner, half other people, but fortunately for Guy Gardner fans, both halves are quite good! The other primary character is some chick from Sinestro's home planet, where the Green Lantern symbol is pretty much the equivalent of a swastika in their minds. All in all, it's a good read for fans of Guy Gardner and the Corps in general.
Be sure to visit our Game Room Page for more information about gaming events, our schedule, and all sorts of gaming information!
NEW Player's Choice Tournaments! The players can choose one of the following tournaments:
Booster Draft - $13 Entry
How a Booster Draft Works: Each player gets three packs, and
all players sit around a table in a circle. Each player opens a pack,
selects a card from it, and then passes the remaining cards to the
player next to him, who in turn selects a card and passes the remaining
on to the next player. After all the cards have been drafted, each
player makes a deck from the cards he has and plays in a
single-elimination tournament where the winner gets about 1.5 packs per
participant!
Type I or II Constructed - $5 Entry
Type I Format (Vintage) - All cards are legal, excepting
certain cards that are banned (not permitted) or restricted (limited to
one per deck). The banned and restricted lists for Type I are available
on Wizards of the Coast’s website at www.wizards.com.
Type II Format (Standard) - Only the most recent core set and two most recent blocks are legal.
First Prize - $50.00 Store Credit
Second Prize - $20.00 Store Credit
What Is DCI Sanctioning?
DCI Sanctioning is a program set up
by Wizards of the Coast to record match results and provide support for
the Magic: The Gathering playerbase. Participants in DCI Events will be
given national ratings and be eligible for special offers from Wizards
of the Coast. DCI Sanctioning also supplies the venue with rare foil
promotional cards for players.
Here are just a few of the many great items we have
available on E-bay! We start new auctions every Monday at 6:00 PM that last through Saturday at 6:00 PM.
Local customers can bid and pick up their purchase at the store to save
on shipping! We also add new items to our E-bay Store every Wednesday
and Thursday. We currently have over 1000 items, including pulps,
vintage paperbacks, handbills, comics, and more!
Super Manga Blast Magazine Lot
This auction contains a lot of 3 of the magazine Super Manga Blast published by Darkhorse Comics:
- #15.
Features 128 pages of Shadow Star, Seraphic Feather, Club 9, 3 x 3
Eyes, What's Michael, and more. This issue is in excellent shape! Looks
near new!
- #19, Features 128 pages of Seraphic Feather,
Shadow Star, Seraphic Feather, Club 9, 3 x 3 Eyes, What's Michael, and
more! This issue is in excellent shape. Looks near new!
- #41,
Features 128 pages of Shadow Star, Club 9's, Seraphic Feather, What's
Micheal, Cannon God Exaxxion, and more. This issue is in great shape.
There's a tiny tear on front cover at bottom edge close to spine. Very
nice interior!
Check out our other movie handbill auctions and feel free to ask us any questions you may have about them.
